Device for curing tobacco



(No Model.)

, W. H. SNOW.

DEVICE FOR CURING TOBACCO. No. 322,330. l Patented Ju`1y1/Jql885.

` AWITJVESSES C V MVNTOVR.

A Attorney.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE..

VILLIAM HENRY SNOW', OF HIGH POINT, NORTH CAROLINA.

DEVICE FOR CURING TOBACCO.

SPECIFICATION farming part of Leners Patent No. 322,330, dated July I4. 188s .application fnedMarcnev, 1885. (Nomoaal.)

To all whom it' may concern.-

Be it known th at I, WILLIAM HENRY SNow, a citizen of the United States, residing at High Point, in the county of Guilford and State of North Carolina, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Guring'Tobacco, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The object of this invention is to cure to- Io bacco in an economical manner both as to the plant itself and in the barn or drying-house.

In the common mode of curing tobacco the plants are cut down when the central leaves are ripe ,and the stalksplit longitudinally and I 5 straddled on a lath or stickand so hung up in the barn. By this mode the lower leaves, which ripen first, rot or waste in the field, while the crown leaves are insufficiently ripened, in fact almost green, and bring 2o hardly enough money to pay for their handling. The temperature of the barn has to be raised to about 180O Fahrenheit in order to dry or cure the stalk sufficiently, and this temperature is,at least 45 higher than suffi- 2 5 cient to cure the leaves. Consequently the leaves are exposed to an injurious or somewhat prejudicialheat, and this I propose to obviate and at the same time effect a saving in fuel.

In my invention I cut from the stalks the 3o leaves as they ripen or yellow,77 and so am enabled to harvest all of the leaves of the plant without waste and secure a yield of great uniformity.` The stalks I leave standing in the field to serve as fertilizer. This, however,

is not new of itself. n

' In order to render such a mode of harvesting and curing tobacco practicable, I have devised a rack and stick of novel construction, as I will now proceed to set forth and claim.

4o In the accompanying drawings, in the several figures of which like parts are similarly designated, Figure I is a perspective view of enough of a barn supplied with my invention to illustrate the same. Fig. 2 is a top plan view of the rack on a larger scale, andFig. 3

is a perspective view of the stick The stick a is of wood of suitable dimensions-say, three feet long by one inch by one and one-fourth inch-and is provided with 5o about seven prongs, b, preferably of steel wire, driven through the stick, extending out each -stanchions,and so on.

side of the same at right angles thereto and extending off from each side of said stick about four inches. These sticks are arranged in a rack, c, when in use for holding the leaves, said rack being a rectangular frame of `wood having notches or sockets d in opposite faces to receive the ends of the sticks and support them and their load.

In the barn I arrange a number of vertical stanchions, e, in pairs connected by cross-timbers f and longitudinal timbers g, or otherwise secured and braced, and these stanchions are arranged to receive between them and support within the stanchions, one above the other,`

about eighteen inches apart, or the length ofthe leaves suspended therefrom. The ropes and pulleys are also useful in lowering the racks when the sticks are to be taken out. Six leaves of tobacco (a hand) will bestuck one at a time through their butts on each wire on each side of the stick, so that each stick will hold fourteen hands of tobacco-a quantity never heretofore, so far as I am aware, possible of being placed upon one stick. Obviously, therefore, I can put more tobacco in a barn than by any of the modes heretofore proposed or practiced.

The operation is as follows: The leaves as they ripen are cut from the stalks and laid carefully and flat in an oblong basket.' The baskets as filled are takento the barn,and the sticks,having been taken from the racks, are` supplied with the leaves by sticking their stem-butts on the wires, as described. The filled sticks are then `placed in the rack till the rack is full. and then said rack is raised to the top of the stanchions and secured there. Another rack is similarly filled and placed in the The nnripe leaves are left on the stalks to ripen and are not cut till ripe, and by removing the ripe leaves the IOO ripening of the others is hastened. After all the leaves are removed the stock is left standing in the field. Atemperature of 135O Fahrenheit will be found amply sufficient to cure tobacco so harvested, and the color Will be more uniform and the leaf in every Way in much.' better condition than has been possible by the methods heretofore employed.

1. The tobacco-stick a, having a series of prongs or points driven through it and projecting from its opposite sides at right angles to the same, combined Withasupporting-rack adapted to receive it and permit its removal at pleasure7 substantially as set forth.

2. A tobacco-stick rack composed of a rectangular frame having opposite notches or socket-s in its longitudinal members to receive the sticks, and provided with means for facilio i'atingvits raising and lowering in position ina barn, substantially as described.

3. A tobacco-stick rack composed of a rectangular frame having opposite notches or sockets in its longitudinal members to receive the sticks, and provided with means for facilitating its raising and lowering in position in a barn, combined with stanchions adapted to receive said racks and pulleys and ropes to engage the racks7 substantially as described.

4. The rectangular frame c, vhaving its longitudinal timbers notched or socketed at opposite points, combined With the sticks a, having the Wire prongs Zn, projecting at right angles from opposite sides of the stick, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 25th day of March, A. D. 1885.

VILLIAM HENRY SNOW'.-

V'Vitnesses:

J. L. SNOW, R. E. KENNEDY. 

